


What's Playing?

by xanithofdragons



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Chance Meetings, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Silly, Vague Relationships, natsume and nyanko speculate about their relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 22:47:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12397824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xanithofdragons/pseuds/xanithofdragons
Summary: Natsume and Matoba run into each other at a movie theater. They're both going to see the same movie. It's the latest big love story. And it's starring Natori Shuuichi.





	What's Playing?

**Author's Note:**

> This came out of silly thoughts like “Do you think Matoba secretly follows Natori's acting career, watching dramas and movies he's in?” Implied/ambiguous Matoba/Natori and also Natsume/Tanuma so vaguely implied I'm not tagging it.

When Natsume entered the theater lobby, it was crowded. He got in the ticket line, and looked around while he was waiting. He saw girls around his age taking pictures of a movie poster featuring Natori with an actress co-star. Natori had sent him a voucher for a ticket to see his latest movie, and he wasn't going to miss the chance for a free movie.

Natsume had purposefully avoided going the first couple of weekends after it opened, but the movie seemed to be doing well. He hoped that he wouldn't run into anyone he knew and that he wouldn't stand out too much as a teenage boy going alone to see a romance.

Natsume sighed. “I should have just invited him to see it with me.”

“Invited who?” a voice came from the direction of the bag he was carrying. He hadn't come completely alone, but a teenage boy going to see a romance movie _with his cat_ would only stand out more.

“Be quiet, Sensei.” The voucher was actually effective for up to two tickets, but it wasn't like Nyanko-sensei needed one. Natsume had considered asking Tanuma to come see it with him, but had ultimately decided against it. He had thought it might be a good excuse for them to hang out somewhere different from normal, but figured it might be weird to ask his friend to watch a love story with him.

Once he finished handing in his voucher for a ticket, he hurried in the direction of the concession stand. He would have given himself more time if he had known it would be this busy, but instead he was cutting it close to sit down in time to watch the move. Before he got to the line for the concession stand though, he stopped with a chill when he caught sight of someone who stood out at the theater more than him: a man with long black hair tied back in a ponytail.

Natsume was only seeing him from behind, but the man was the right height and build to be the head of the Matoba clan. Looking at him more, though, he relaxed as he noticed that the man was holding a ticket in one hand and a drink from the theater's concession stand in the other. Running into Matoba in a place related to yokai or exorcists was one thing, but Natsume couldn't think of any reason Matoba would be at a movie theater. He concluded that the man he was seeing must just be a normal movie-goer with a strange hairstyle.

The man started to turn around, and Natsume thought he would finally see proof that it wasn't Matoba at all. He was wrong. The man turned fully, and Natsume saw one eye covered and one red eye. It was Matoba. Worse, while Natsume had been staring, their eyes had met, and now Matoba was walking towards him.

“What a coincidence, running into you here,” Matoba said when they were close enough to hear one another. “Although I suppose this theater isn't far from where you live, now that I think about it.” 

Natsume was now glad he hadn't brought anyone but Nyanko-sensei with him. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I came to see a movie, of course,” Matoba replied. Natsume had trouble believing that and it must have shown on his face because Matoba continued. “What? Even I go to see movies sometimes.” Natsume hadn't thought of it before, but with the evidence before his eyes, he supposed it could be true. “What movie are you here to see?”

Natsume told him the title of the movie he was seeing and that Natori had sent him a voucher for it. Matoba already knew they were friends, so he hoped it would be alright to say as much.

Matoba chuckled. “I see. Do you always bring your cat with you to the movies?”

“I couldn't miss out on the chance to laugh at that Natori kid's cheesy acting!” Nyanko-sensei said as he popped his head out of Natsume's bag.

“Is that so?” Matoba said.

“Sensei! Someone might notice you,” Natsume tried to push Nyanko-sensei back into his bag, but he stuck his head back out immediately.

“But you did well to sense my presence. I guess someone as strong as me can't completely mask their power,” Nyanko-sensei continued, ignoring Natsume's protests.

“I saw your eyes glaring out of his bag,” Matoba explained.

“Heh, so my warning stare worked! Hm, but are you here to laugh at Natori too? I saw the ticket in your hand earlier.” Nyanko-sensei leaned in the direction of the hand in which Matoba was holding his ticket.

“Something like that.” Matoba brought the ticket in front of his face to look at it. “It's funny how that yokai on him will show up even in pictures of him or in film. Can you see it even then, too, Natsume-kun?”

“Uh, yeah...” Natsume answered. It was awkward enough to watch a movie with his friend in it knowing how differently he acted in his day-to-day life, but seeing that yokai knowing most people couldn't see it made the whole experience even weirder.

“Of course. Having seen your abilities before, I hardly need to ask you.” Matoba was responding normally, but his gaze had wondered to a poster for the movie they were seeing. There were still girls occasionally stopping in front of it.

“Um, anyway... enjoy the movie.” Natsume started backing away, wanting to end the surreal conversation.

“You don't have to run away again.” Matoba turned his focus back to Natsume. “We can go in and sit together. I have somewhere to be after the movie ends, but I wouldn't mind chatting with you while we wait for it to start.”

“Oi, Natsume,” Nyanko-sensei suddenly spoke up. “We don't have time for this. You need to buy me the popcorn you promised me.”

“Um, well that's how it is. It won't be long before the movie starts, and I still need to buy snacks. So you go on ahead.” Natsume took the lifeline Nyanko-sensei threw.

“Fine, I'll go on ahead. I wouldn't want to miss the start of the movie,” Matoba said as he turned and walked away. Natsume was surprised that he seemed to have actually shaken off Matoba that easily.

“You think... he's really just here to see a movie? Should we leave?” Natsume asked Nyanko-sensei after Matoba left his field of vision.

“He had the least evil intent about him compared to any time I've seen him before. I think we should be fine if we keep our distance from him,” Nyanko-sensei replied.

“I can't imagine him as the type to like romance movies, though.”

“Hmm, you're right.”

The encounter as a whole had given Natsume the feeling that Matoba was genuinely surprised to have run into him. “But why? The stuff he was saying, you don't think...” He couldn't finish the sentence. It was too ridiculous to think that Matoba would see a movie just because Natori Shuuichi was in it. “No way.” Natsume started laughing, but held it back when he remembered where he was. No matter how silly it seemed, though, he couldn't entirely let go of the idea. Matoba had talked about seeing the yokai on Natori's body in picture and film almost as though he saw it regularly.

“This is funny.” Nyanko-sensei was snickering. “We'll have to tell that Natori that we saw the head of the Matoba clan going to see his cheesy romance movie.”

“Sensei, why do I get the feeling that you're thinking of saying something mean to him?”

“It's your fault for hanging out with that stupid exorcist and taking me to see his cheesy romance movie instead of an action movie! You should take me to see action movies!” Natsume's bag shook as Nyanko-sensei moved around inside of it.

“Quiet down before someone notices you. I told you that you didn't have to come with me.” Natsume shoved Nyanko-sensei back into his bag, and this time he stayed inside. Whatever Matoba's intentions, after running into him, Natsume privately thought that he was actually glad Nyanko-sensei was here this time. He went the rest of the way to the concession stand to buy popcorn and drinks to share with him.

He managed to make it into the theater shortly before the movie started and find a seat a good distance away from Matoba seemingly without being noticed. The theater was full enough that he had to sit Nyanko-sensei in his lap instead of the seat next to him. Although he found it hard to focus on the movie at first, he was eventually able to forget about Matoba as it went on.

As the movie ended and the credits started, he remembered again about Matoba, but when he looked towards where he thought he had seen him sitting, he was already gone. Natsume stood when he noticed most of the audience standing and left the theater hiding himself as best as he could in the crowd.

Once they had made it a good distance away from the theater, Natsume stretched in relief. The worry of running into Matoba had left him tense again as they had left. Nyanko-sensei hopped out of his bag and stretched his limbs out as well.

“I didn't see Matoba-san again. Did you sense anything, Sensei?” Natsume asked.

“I didn't sense any other exorcists or any of Matoba's creepy shiki. It's too bad we didn't run into him again, though. I was hoping for the chance to tease him a little.” Nyanko-sensei laughed mischievously.

“Weren't you saying we should keep our distance from him before?”

“And I came up with so many good lines to tease him with while watching the movie, too! I was going to ask him if he watched the movie imagining himself as the heroine.” Now Natsume was imagining Natori kissing Matoba, but the eye-patch and arrogant look Matoba always had ruined it.

“Don't put weird images into my head, Sensei. And what are you implying anyway?”

“I guess we'll just have to tease that Natori twice as much when we see him next.”

“Sensei.” Natsume put as much warning into his voice as he could.

“What? Aren't you the least bit curious what kind of history those two might have? This could be a good chance to ask him.”

Natsume did have a lot of things he still wanted to ask Natori, but he hadn't actually thought about his relationship with Matoba much. Natori seemed to act almost coldly when it came to Matoba sometimes. Nyanko-sensei's jokes aside, Natsume did have to wonder what Matoba felt towards Natori, though.

“Maybe we could mention it next time and see what Natori-san says,” Natsume said at length. At the look on Nyanko-sensei's face he added, “But try to be nice, Sensei.” He didn't know if Natori would tell him more about his past, and it would probably be an awkward conversation even if he did. Still, Natsume thought maybe it would be okay if he started to push more with his friends.

**Author's Note:**

> That ending is kind of a teasing lie. I don't have any sequel planned for this currently, but I might write one if I have any ideas that satisfy me.


End file.
